Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The background might be classified as either a coral print or a stick print.

A shawl print imitating woven design.

I could go on about quirky print fads in the early-19th-century but this has got to stop somewhere! Here's the LAST star post in the Time Warp Quilt Along. We'll end with three related designs typical

of early 19th century roller prints from about 1810-1840.

Shawl Prints

The design influence of India's cashmere shawls was impressive. From them we get the classic paisley prints, which were first called shawl prints.

European printers borrowed the boteh shape. They also imitated

the expensive woven shawl look by stylizing shapes to look

like they are woven. Notice the diagonal lines and the jagged edges.

A twill shawl print designed to look like it is woven

rather than printed.

Shawl prints did not necessarily have the botah shape we

associate with paisley prints.

From a quilt about 1810. The jagged edges could be quite strange.

A small florette (#1) a shawl print from Ackermann's Repository about 1810.

Note the tiny printed lines

to further the illusion. The lines echo a twill weave.

Another issue of Ackermann's Repository with a form of shawl print style at top.

Shawl print (lower left) and a mossy trail or coral (upper right)

Stick Prints & Cracked Ice

The fashionable jagged look is also seen in two relatives: Stick prints and cracked ice, also probably derived from Eastern imports to Europe.

Odd relations about 1830: stick prints and cracked ice.

Stick print for the light at the top here

Cracked ice for the light at the lower right.

Stick prints might be seen as moss or seaweed but

are exaggerated in their angularity.

They resemble a Japanese porcelain pattern called Prunus or Hawthorn.

A plum tree design

The blue stripe is a stick print that would never grow in nature.

A shawl print with a stick print.

Stylized paisley with green sticks.

Too buggy for me!

Cracked Ice or Thorn Prints

In the 1960s textile historian Peter Floud mentioned “cracked ice” as a style often seen in quilts from the second quarter of the 19th century. The spiky vines or thorns seem to be a cross between seaweed and stick prints.

Thorns or cracked ice.

Cracked ice as a fancy machine ground

The lower pink and white print---cracked ice?

Mimimalism in the 1830s.

The source for cracked ice as with the stick flowers may very

well be the European fascination with Asian porcelain. Above a Japanese

Saturday, November 21, 2015

In her 1976 book Kentucky Quilts and Their Makers Mary Washington Clarke showed a black and white detail of a "Civil War Memorial Quilt" dated 1866. The credit line is Kentucky Museum, gift of Henry Porter Brown

Apparently the velvet hexagons have held up better than the satins and taffetas.

I was struck by the similarity in the embroidery styles between this quilt and one in the collection of the Museum of the Confederacy, made for Jefferson Davis, shown in the color photos.

The only photo Clarke showed was the central area with the signature and date,

"Vic W.S./A.D. 1866"

Above is the center hexagon in the Museum of the Confederacy's quilt,

It looks to be shattered satin with a flower perhaps.

Clarke described the pattern:

"six-pointed star pieced in hexagon blocks of the Flower Garden type,
central hexagon of black velvet... embroidered in gold threads...names...appear in the outer rim of black hexagons in this central block...embroidered in one of these outer pieces is Gens of C.S.A. [the block shown.]...six points of the large overall star show similar constellations [with embroidered names]

I can find no other record of this star quilt made of hexagons.

Clarke identifies it as a Memorial Quilt in the Kentucky Museum (fig 32) ....worn
almost to tatters and its maker is unidentified. The donor thought it was from the Porter family and it was "Found in a drawer after mother
died."

Other names Clarke mentions (aside from Confederate Generals) are Dr. Stallard, S. Huston, Dr. Combs, Richard G Caruthers, A. Strange, M. Winans. She also notes the back of the quilt is "silk in small black and white check."